Easy-Money Era a Long Game for Fed

By

Jon Hilsenrath

Updated March 17, 2013 5:42 p.m. ET

The gazillion-dollar question in financial markets these days is this: When will the Federal Reserve turn to the exit ramp?

Investors, lenders and many other market participants obsess about the end of easy money and the broad implications it carries. When the Fed decides to pull back from its latest bond-buying program—$85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage debt purchases—or when it starts raising short-term interest rates from...